JPH06333899A - Chemical treatment method and treatment device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable chemicals used in a chemical treatment to be efficiently separated and recovered. CONSTITUTION:A chemical treatment chamber 1 is divided into a first chemical treatment chamber 4 and a second chemical treatment chamber 5 by a partition plate 3 provided with an opening 2, and a stage 8 which holds a semiconductor substrate 9 is set rotatable and movable to the chemical treatment chambers 4 and 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for treating a semiconductor substrate or the like with a chemical in a manufacturing process of semiconductor integrated circuits, liquid crystal devices and the like, and a chemical treatment apparatus used therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, in the manufacturing process of semiconductor integrated circuits, liquid crystal devices, etc.
A large number of chemical solution treatment steps of washing and drying are required. There are various types of conventional cleaning process embodiments, as described below.

A first mode is pre-coating cleaning in which the substrate is cleaned before the photosensitive resin is applied to the substrate in the photo-etching process. In this case, the cleaning hinders the formation of a desired photosensitive resin pattern. The main purpose is to remove large and small adhered particles and dust or foreign matter.

The second mode is pre-film-forming cleaning in which the film is washed before film-forming in the film-forming step, and in this case, large and small adhered particles which are obstacles to forming a film without pinholes or film peeling. In addition to removing dust, dust, and foreign substances, the purpose of surface modification to enhance the adhesion of the film, and in the case of a multilayer wiring structure, to prevent contact failure between the upper and lower conductive patterns Therefore, it also has the purpose of surface treatment for removing the oxide film on the surface of the underlying conductive film.

As a third mode, after etching the substrate,
Alternatively, there is cleaning after peeling the photosensitive resin pattern, and in this case, the purpose is mainly to remove the undecomposed photosensitive resin remaining in the chemical liquid or the peeling liquid used for these treatments. There are other steps that require cleaning, but they are omitted here.

In all of the above chemical treatment steps such as etching and cleaning, pure water is generally used in the final step of cleaning, and the cleaning step in the developing process and the etching process at the time of photo-etching. In the mass production process, a method of continuously treating the substrates one by one by spraying pure water onto the substrates in a shower shape or a spray shape is often used. FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration diagram of such a conventional etching / cleaning apparatus. In the configuration, the processing chamber 101, the water washing chamber 102 and the drying chamber 103 are the minimum constituent elements, and the chemical treatment time is Process chamber 1 for processes that require a long time
01 is configured in two stages, or the treatment chamber 101 and the washing chamber 10 are used in order to reduce the carry-out amount of the treatment liquid to the washing chamber 102.
In some cases, a designing method such as providing a drainage chamber between the two and the like may be added.

To briefly explain the configuration of this apparatus, a chemical liquid circulation pump 104, a filter 105 for removing dust or particles in the chemical liquid, and a pipe system 107 including a valve 106 for adjusting the flow rate, and a liquid The injection nozzle 108, the processing chamber 101, the chemical liquid recovery pipe 109 provided at the bottom of the processing chamber 101, and the chemical liquid circulation tank 110 constitute a closed loop so that the chemical liquid 111 can be circulated and used. There is.

Piping system 11 having a stop valve 112
Reference numeral 3 denotes a chemical liquid supply pipe for supplying the chemical liquid 111 to the circulation tank 110. Although not shown, for example, a new chemical liquid 111 is pressure-fed by a pressure of N ₂ gas from a separately installed supply tank to generate a new chemical liquid 111. Is supplied to. Similarly, the pipe system 115 having the stop valve 114 is a chemical liquid waste pipe for discarding the used chemical liquid 111 to the outside. Although not shown, the pipe system 115 is transferred to a separately installed waste liquid tank or the like and then used as industrial waste. Processing is done.

In the rinsing chamber 102, pure water of an appropriate purity is generally required to wash away the chemical liquid adhering to the substrate, and therefore a pure water supply pipe 117 having a flow rate adjusting valve 116 is provided. A nozzle 118 for injecting pure water onto the substrate is arranged at the tip of the pipe 117. In the drainage pipe 119 of the treated water obtained by washing the substrate with water, the drainage pipe 119 is usually subjected to a treatment for pollution control because the drainage 119 contains a small amount of the chemical liquid in the initial stage of cleaning with pure water. It is connected to the equipment, the wastewater is treated here, and then discarded as factory wastewater. The washing chamber 102 has a two-stage structure, and the treated water generated in the first washing chamber is subjected to the pollution control treatment as described above, and the treated water obtained in the second washing chamber has a high purity and is recovered and then reused again. Recently, many efforts have been made to conserve resources, such as using it as a pure water source for the purpose of, or as raw water for a pure water production apparatus.

Not only is pure water sprayed onto the substrate, ultrasonic waves are superposed on the pure water to be sprayed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-196219), or a high-pressure jet is used (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. (See Japanese Patent No. 4-188828)
Also, a cleaning machine has been proposed in which the ability to remove foreign matter and particles adhering to the substrate by physical force is enhanced.

In the drying chamber 103, the pressure gauge 120 and the flow rate adjusting valve 12 are used to dry the wet substrate after washing with water.
1 is provided with a dry gas supply pipe 122.
A nozzle 123 for ejecting dry air or a dry gas such as nitrogen gas in a sheet shape onto the substrate is arranged at the tip of 22. Water condensed in the drying chamber 103 by the nozzle 123 is discarded by the drain pipe 124. The method of blowing the dried gas onto the substrate to dry the substrate is also called an air knife, and the nozzles 118 and 123 are
It is efficient and common to eject from below the substrate as well as above the substrate. Although the substrate is carried by the carrying line 125, the substrate carrying mechanism, the gate valve installed between the processing chamber 101 and the washing chamber 102, and the interference preventing mechanism such as the air curtain are omitted in the drawing. In addition to such an air knife method, IP
Although there is a substitution-type drying method using a fast-drying organic solvent such as A, the description thereof is omitted here.

In the above-mentioned equipment structure, since the etching process, the cleaning process and the drying process with the chemical liquid are individually carried out, there is a drawback that the processing apparatus becomes long and that a large amount of dry gas is consumed during the drying process, and it scatters. There has been a drawback that water droplets bounce off and adhere to the substrate to cause so-called water marks, which may cause quality defects such as film peeling and contact failure.

Therefore, as a processing apparatus for eliminating these drawbacks, a spin type chemical processing apparatus for processing while rotating the substrate 126 is used as shown in FIG. In this apparatus, the substrate 126 is held by a chuck 127, and the chuck 126 is generally of a system in which the substrate 126 is held by vacuum suction. When it is desired to clean the back surface of the substrate 126, the chuck 127 is not shaped like a disc. Instead, the substrate 126 is formed in a lattice shape, and stop pins are arranged around the chuck 127 to prevent the substrate 126 from popping out.

Reference numeral 128 is a shaft for supporting and rotating the chuck 127, 129 is a sealing mechanism for making the cup-shaped container 130 serving as a processing chamber and the shaft 128 liquid-tight, 131 is a nozzle for injecting or dropping a chemical solution, 132
Is a nozzle for spraying or dropping pure water, and 133 is a nozzle 1
31 is a pipe for supplying the chemical liquid, 134 is a pipe for supplying the pure water to the nozzle 132, 135 is a drain pipe, 136 is a switching valve, 137 is a chemical liquid recovery pipe, and 138 is a treated water drain pipe.

Although not shown, the cup-shaped container 130
A large opening for loading and unloading the substrate 126 is provided on the top of the substrate, and an exhaust port for exhausting the mist of the chemical liquid or the treatment water generated during the treatment is further provided. There is also a lid for preventing the substrate 126 from scattering and a nozzle for blowing a dry gas to the substrate 126 is provided in order to shorten the drying time when the substrate 126 is rotated at a high speed and dried.

In this spin type chemical liquid processing apparatus, the substrate 126 is held on the chuck 127, the chemical liquid is jetted from the nozzle 131 to perform the chemical liquid treatment, and then the shaft 128 is used.
While rotating the substrate 126 to rotate the nozzle 132
More pure water is sprayed to perform a cleaning process, and then the shaft 128 is rotated at a high speed to fly off water droplets on the substrate 126 to perform spin drying.

As described above, it is possible to perform the etching process with the chemical liquid and the water washing / drying process with a single device by using the spin type chemical liquid processing device. For example, in the photo-etching process, development and rinsing are performed. Devices having the three functions of drying are already used in large quantities.

[0018]

In the conventional spin type chemical liquid processing apparatus, when a developing solution and a rinsing solution are organic solvent type like a negative type resist, they are used for each substrate. There is no problem because it is sufficient to collect the two types of chemical solutions already used, but in the case of a positive resist, pure water is used as the rinse solution, so try to separate the developer and rinse solutions and collect them. Then it was not easy and there was a problem.

That is, when the used developer and treated water are to be separated as shown in FIG. 3, a drain valve 135 from the container 130 is provided with a switching valve 136, and a chemical solution recovery pipe 137 or a chemical solution recovery pipe 137 is provided depending on the treatment process. Treated water drain pipe 138
There is no other way than to connect to the above, but it is not possible to supply pure water after the developer supply has been stopped for a sufficient time after the developer supply has been completed, to carry out the cleaning treatment because the development reaction proceeds. This is possible, and there is no choice but to supply pure water for cleaning in a short time within a few seconds. Therefore, there is an unavoidable problem that the developer and the rinse solution are confused with each other. Either the diluted developer is recovered more than the amount used, or the treated water mixed with a considerable developer is recovered. There is also a problem that the disposal cost of the developing solution or the processing cost of the processed water as industrial waste increases. This problem also occurs in a chemical processing apparatus using a chemical solution other than the developing solution.

The present invention provides a chemical solution treating method capable of efficiently separating and recovering the chemical solution after completion of the chemical treatment when performing a plurality of stages of chemical treatment with the chemical solution (including pure water), and the structure. It is an object of the present invention to provide a chemical liquid processing device that is simple and has a small installation space.

[0021]

In order to achieve the above object, in the chemical liquid processing method of the present invention, the chemical liquid processing chamber is divided into upper and lower stages, and the chambers at the end portions are successively processed from the end chambers. By moving the rotary stage holding the liquid chemicals in each room, the chemical treatment of the object to be treated with the chemical liquid and the removal of the chemical liquid by rotating the rotary stage are performed.

In order to achieve the above object, in the chemical liquid processing apparatus of the present invention, the chemical liquid processing chamber is divided into a plurality of upper and lower chambers by a partition plate having an opening, and a chemical liquid supply unit is provided in each chamber. In addition, each of the chemical liquid discharge parts is provided, and the rotatable rotary stage for holding the object to be processed can be moved to each room through the opening of the partition plate.

In order to move the rotary stage to each room, the rotary stage may be vertically movable or the chemical treatment chamber may be vertically movable.

The above chemical solution includes water and pure water used for the cleaning process, and each of the divided chambers of the chemical solution processing chamber has a specific processing step in addition to the function of each processing step. The above process, for example, the process of each constitution in which the chemical solution treatment is constituted by several stages can be made to function.

[0025]

According to the present invention configured as described above, each step of chemically treating an object to be treated with a plurality of types of chemicals is carried out in each stage room, and after the treatment is completed, the object is treated. The adhering chemicals can be separated and collected individually by rotating and rotating the rotary stage in each room to scatter and remove.

Further, if the steps in the chemical solution treatment are further divided and each of the divided steps is performed in each of the tier chambers, the difference in the concentration of the treated chemical solution,
Alternatively, it works more effectively so that it can be separated and collected depending on the degree of dirt.

Further, since the chemical treatment chamber is divided into a plurality of upper and lower stages, the apparatus can be downsized and the installation area can be reduced, and the moving mechanism of the rotary stage for holding the object to be treated is simple in the vertical direction. It becomes easy to make a simple structure.

[0028]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a chemical liquid processing chamber, which is divided into two upper and lower parts by a partition plate 3 having an opening 2 in the center, a first chemical liquid processing chamber 4 in the lower stage, and a second chemical liquid processing chamber 5 in the upper stage.
Is formed.

The partition plate 3 has an inclined portion 7 so that the central portion where the opening 2 exists is higher than the peripheral portion 6.
Reference numeral 8 denotes a rotatable stage for vacuum-sucking and holding the semiconductor substrate 9, and 10 denotes a shaft for supporting the stage 8, which is connected to a mechanism for imparting rotational movement and vertical movement to the stage 8. Reference numeral 11 is a nozzle for injecting a chemical liquid in the first chemical liquid processing chamber 4, 12 is a passage for supplying the chemical liquid to the nozzle 11,
13 is a nozzle for injecting pure water in the second chemical liquid processing chamber 5, 14 is a passage for supplying pure water to the nozzle 13, 15 is a passage for collecting the treated chemical liquid, 16 is a passage for collecting the treated water, Reference numeral 17 denotes a seal mechanism that makes the space between the chemical liquid processing chamber 1 and the shaft 10 liquid-tight. Although the example in which the shaft 10 is connected to the mechanism that moves up and down is shown, the stage 8 is moved to the first position by moving the chemical processing chamber 1 up and down by connecting the mechanism to the mechanism that moves vertically. It is also possible to move the chemical liquid processing chamber 4 and the second chemical liquid processing chamber 5.

The operation will be described below. First, the stage 8 is moved to the first chemical liquid processing chamber 4 as shown in FIG.
Inside, the substrate 9 is held on the stage 8 from the outside of the chemical treatment chamber 1 by the transfer mechanism, and then the chemical is sprayed from the nozzle 11 onto the substrate 9 for a predetermined amount or for a predetermined time to perform the chemical treatment. . In the case of general etching, rotation of several rpm to several tens of rpm is given to the stage 8 in order to enhance the homogeneity of reaction, but in the case of photographic etching, the chemical solution treatment is often carried out by stationary (paddle). developing). After completion of the chemical treatment, the stage 8 is rotated for several seconds at several 100 rpm to remove the treated chemical solution by lightly scattering it so that the substrate 9 is not dried. The chemical liquid scattered here adheres to the inner wall of the first chemical liquid processing chamber 4, and is collected from the passage 15 along the inner wall.

Next, the shaft 10 is moved upward or the chemical liquid processing chamber 1 is moved downward to move the stage 8 to a partition plate in the second chemical liquid processing chamber 5 as shown in FIG. 1 (b). Position it a little above 3, then move on to stage 8
When pure water is sprayed onto the substrate 9 from the nozzle 13 while rotating at rpm to several 100 rpm, the treated water is spun in the outer peripheral direction of the substrate 9 due to the centrifugal force because the substrate 9 is rotating and the second chemical liquid treatment chamber. The partition plate 3 hits the inner wall of 5 and flows downward.
Since it collects on the upper side and then flows into the passage 16, there is no risk that the treated water will enter the passage 15 through the opening 2. After washing with water for a predetermined time while rotating the substrate 9, and then stopping the injection of pure water from the nozzle 13, several hundreds of
The stage 8 is rotated at a high speed at 0 rpm for drying, and the chemical treatment is completed. In order to shorten the drying time, a nozzle for blowing dry gas such as dry air or nitrogen gas or a heated gas thereof may be installed.

[0033]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects.

The chemical treatment chamber is divided into upper and lower tiers, and chemical treatment of the object to be treated and recovery of the treated chemical are carried out. Can be collected.

When applied to the development of photoresist, for example, there is no possibility that pure water as a rinse liquid is mixed in the developer collected after use, and the developer mixed in the treated water is very small. Therefore, the efficiency of recovering the developer is high, and the waste solution treatment cost can be prevented from being unnecessarily increased, so that an industrially effective system can be realized.

Further, since the chemical treatment chamber is divided into upper and lower parts, the apparatus can be downsized and the installation area can be reduced.
Further, the structure can be simple.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a chemical liquid processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional chemical treatment device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional spin-type chemical treatment device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Chemical Solution Processing Room 2 Opening 3 Partition Plate 4 First Chemical Solution Processing Room 5 Second Chemical Solution Processing Room 8 Stage 9 Substrate 11, 13 Nozzle 15, 16 Passage

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A rotatable stage holding an object to be treated is sequentially moved from a room at an end portion of a chemical solution processing chamber divided into a plurality of upper and lower stages, and the object to be treated by the chemical solution is moved to each room. A chemical treatment method characterized by performing a chemical treatment and removing a chemical adhering to an object by rotating a rotary stage. 2. A rotary stage holding a workpiece is positioned in a lower chamber that divides the chemical treatment chamber into upper and lower halves by a partition plate having an opening sized at the center to allow the rotary stage to pass through. After the first chemical liquid is supplied to the object for processing, the rotary stage is rotated to scatter the first chemical liquid on the object to be processed, and then the rotary stage is moved to the upper chamber to move the second chemical liquid. Is supplied to the object to be processed, and then the second chemical solution is scattered from the object to be processed by the rotation of the rotary stage. 3. A chemical solution processing chamber is divided into a plurality of upper and lower chambers by a partition plate having an opening, and each room is provided with a chemical solution supply section and a chemical solution discharge section, which are rotatable for holding an object to be treated. Liquid processing apparatus in which various stages can be moved to the room of each stage through the opening of the partition plate. 4. The chemical treatment apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the rotatable stage holding the object to be treated is vertically movable. 5. The chemical treatment chamber is vertically movable.
Alternatively, the chemical liquid processing device according to item 4.